(This is really late, I know. Christmas and all. Sorry to anyone who was invested in it!)
Picking up immediately where the previous mission left off, it’s clear right off the bat we’re not in Kansas anymore. Geometric shapes stand out against a dense star field, and a giant three-eyed head of lettuce presides over the group. This is it: the final test.
This week, Picard yet again vetoes Riker’s call on not joining the away team, and gets his brain wiped for his trouble. While he and a few other senior officers make uncredited cameos in the planet’s televised war games, Riker has to deal with standoffish leaders, planetary shields, and an assistant doctor with different priorities. Is Riker just chopped liver or what? Does Picard really care about his friend’s daughter? How much research should you do before you throw a coworker under the bus? It’s the book that desperately needs a ratings boost.
This week, the Enterprise returns home from its successful five-year tour of the galaxy. They’ve played a lot of legendary shows and sold a ton of merch, and now they’re ready to live off the royalties. But there’s another rock god waiting in the wings to do some distressingly literal face-melting of his own. Meanwhile, Kirk reluctantly settles into the desk jockey phase of his career, Spock falls back on teaching, and Bones tries freelancing, but everyone knows the universe can’t keep these three separated for too long. What’s Kevin Riley up to these days? What happens when pulling rank goes wrong? Should McCoy try to get that subspace phone call fee waived? It’s the book that believes in the heart of the cards.
Atabis, a planet in the Klingon Neutral Zone, sends out a distress signal: a sleeper ship, the Compassion, is headed their way and prepared to land right smack on top of the capital city. The Enterprise, being the nearest Federation vessel, is dispatched to investigate, and the Klingons also send a ship of their own, the Pao Yar, helmed by the magnanimous Captain Klarr.
Shore Leave is the non-Trek culture arm of the Deep Space Spines website, posted every other Tuesday and made possible by donations to the site’s Patreon.
I originally had this one slotted lower, but it has taken up so much of my time and energy that I moved it into the top slot: 20XX, a game I bought on Steam last week (it was on sale and the price was right). Bascially, 20XX is Mega Man X, with everything Mega Man games tend to entail, and also with procedurally generated levels. You go in for a run, beat as many bosses as you can, and then buy upgrades with the Soul Chips you earn that from then on may then appear in future runs. I bought this last week and have already sunk 12 hours into it, which I always think of as time I could have spent writing. I haven’t had a game sink its hooks into me this deep in a hot minute—probably the last time was with Stardew Valley. If you like Mega Man-type action, I can’t recommend this enough.
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